FILM SYNOPSIS:

What prevents poor people from getting ahead? Banks refuse to give credit without collateral. Where commercial banks see insolvency, Nobel Prize–winning economist Muhammad Yunus sees opportunity. His groundbreaking Grameen Bank in Bangladesh was built on the radical notion that if you loan poor women money within the context of peer support, not only will they repay and sustain the bank, but they will also elevate their communities in the process.

After his astounding success in Bangladesh Yunus started new programs around the world. As the global financial industry struggles with plummeting markets and job losses, Yunus holds steady with his latest banking initiative in New York. Under intense scrutiny from international press and academics, Grameen America opened for business in a nondescript office building in Jackson Heights, Queens in late 2007.

With an intimate camera capturing both buoyant and despairing moments, director Ferraro chronicles the evolution of the tiny new branch. Will the solidarity principles translate to a diverse group of inner-city women? This is the inspiring, logic-defying yet true story of one man's idea, a strange new kind of bank, and the millions of lives it changed.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY:

Gayle Ferraro, founder of Aerial Productions, brings personal accounts of extraordinary and socially compelling stories to the film circuit. To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks of America is Ferraro’s fourth independently produced and directed feature documentary, and a recipient of the prestigious Sundance Documentary Program/Skoll Foundation Stories of Change grant.